Description

"Islamophobia" is a term that has been widely applied to anti-Muslim ideas and actions, especially since 9/11. The contributors to this provocative volume explore and critique the usefulness of the concept for understanding contexts ranging from the Middle Ages to the modern day. Moving beyond familiar explanations such as good Muslim/bad Muslim stereotypes or the "clash of civilizations," they describe Islamophobia's counterpart, Islamophilia, which deploys similar oppositions in the interest of fostering public acceptance of Islam. Contributors address topics such as conflicts over Islam outside and within Muslim communities in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia; the cultural politics of literature, humor, and urban renewal; and religious conversion to Islam.

Author Bio

Andrew Shryock is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He is author of Nationalism and the Genealogical Imagination and co-author of Arab Detroit and Citizenship and Crisis: Arab Detroit after 9/11.

Reviews

". . . a collection at once serious and sensible in its scope, ambitions and outcome." —Bruce B. Lawrence, Religion Dispatches

"Islamophobia/Islamophilia is a spirited volume that takes aim at the confining but dominant debate on Islam, 'for or against.' Its eye-opening cases demonstrate just how much opposed sides share, and reveal surprising alignments and crossovers that happen beyond the binary. Politically astute, analytically acute, and pervasively humanistic, this is a rare contribution that brings clarity to an ideologically charged and muddied field." —Engseng Ho, Duke University

"Very timely. An excellent contribution to humanistic scholarship by a number of leading scholars. The disciplinary range and nuance of the individual essays in this volume do a great job to illustrate and analyze how ahistorical, demeaning, or apologetic views of Muslims and Islam function and circulate." —Ussama Makdisi, Rice University

"In all, this work is a rich and varied fare. What is welcome is the book's developed insight that Islamophilia can also be an act of wishful thinking and fantasy as much as Islamophobia. Morever, the latter can be propagated by Muslims. In all, this is a plea for a grown up engagement with Muslims who are as diverse as Christians and Jews." —The Muslim World Book Review , 31:4, 2011

"Overall, the volume is an impressive collection of serious discursive analyses that heighten our sensitivities to the forms arguments about Islam take; while always indexes of power, it is clear that the shared terms of global debates about Islamic reform do not always correspond to shared meanings." —American Ethnologist

Customer Reviews

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Islam as an Object of Fear and Affection: A Problem for Critical Analysis / Andrew Shryock

Part 1. Continuities and Transformations 1. Western Hostility toward Muslims: A History of the Present / Toma Mastnak 2. The Khalil Gibran International Academy: Diasporic Confrontations with an Emerging Islamophobia / Naamah Paley

Part 3. Violence and Conversion in Europe 6. The Fantasy and Violence of Religious Imagination: Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism in France and North Africa / Paul A. Silverstein 7. German Converts to Islam and Their Ambivalent Relations with Immigrant Muslims / Esra zyürek